Original Mac GUI artist thinks new “flat” iOS 7 icons are A-OK

Susan Kare, iconic icon designer, gives thumbs-up.

If you've used a computer, you've seen Susan Kare's work. She was a member of the original Macintosh team at Apple and drew the lion's share of the Mac's system icons; her post-Mac work has included art for Facebook, Microsoft, and many others. Her keen eye for design even led to her being summoned to testify in Apple v. Samsung.

Kare's vision and aesthetic have shaped the direction of modern GUI icon design, and she remains active in the design world. With such an intimate connection to Apple and its history, it's not surprising that she has an opinion on iOS 7's new "flat" iconography. NetworkWorld asked her what she thought of the updated icons:

Generally a good direction—am a fan of simple, meaningful symbols that fill a space, such as Music and Weather. It's better—more iconic, less illustrative.

Criticisms of the iOS 7 icons have cropped up in many places. The Game Center icon is nonrepresentational blobs of colors, the Camera app looks like a piece of bad clip art, Settings is some kind of weird manhole cover thing, and so on. But Kare's take that icons should be symbolic rather than literal has a tremendous amount of merit. Discarding photorealism and sticking with bold shapes and colors challenges designers to come up with more meaningful symbology and ultimately results in clearer icons.

When drawing the original Mac icons, Kare had to work within a grid of 32×32 pixels and had only black and white. Within the limits of this medium, she still was able to construct clearly recognizable, functional depictions of applications and functions.

In fact, according to Mac software designer Andy Hertzfeld, she would draw icon-sized portraits of Mac team members to help her hone her skill at working within that 32×32 grid. "It became a Mac team status symbol to be iconified by Susan," writes Hertzfeld.

iOS 7's graphical changes are sweeping in their scope and won't sit well with everyone. But in the eyes of the mother of the Macintosh's icons, the new direction is positive.

127 Reader Comments

She is speaking to the aesthetics of the icons (which, while questionable, is subjective). The problem I have with the new design is low contrast and obscurity. It isn't always clear what is 'button' and what is 'information', and the text (from the preview) is very difficult to read.

Very nice insight from another industry great. Creating icons that are symbolic - not to mention instantly recognizable - is no easy task. In fact, that's why skeuomorphs were popular for so long - it's far easier to create a digital representation of something people clearly recognize. That being said, there are some icons that absolutely warrant some more attention - mentioning game center in the article is a great example.

From the quoted tidbits, it sounds more like she agrees with the *direction* of the new art style: more symbolic, less skeuomorphic. I don't know we can say she likes the specific icon designs are currently implemented. (I hope, deep in my heart, that she doesn't like the current designs. Her icons were classic, amazing... iconic... Whereas many of the current iOS7 icons leave much to be desired.)

I think the direction of the GUI itself is fine, but some of the individual icons are awful, generic trash. Yes you want to be able to have a universal, recognizable iconography, but universal can still be classic and beautiful.

I don't mind the flatness, whereas the whole "metro" thing is too flat for my tastes. And while I'm not fan of either the gray-on-gray new Google look nor the garish colors of Windows 8, I'm finding the new iOS palette a little bubble gum and cotton candy. That's pure opinion, though.

But a lot of those icons... I'm not sure what they are supposed to represent, and that, IMO, is a design problem.

I can only speak based on what I've seen in pictures and walkthrough videos, but so far my feeling on it is "meh". I have always been happy with the icons the way they are, and have never clamored for changes in the way the phone *looks*; the big changes that I think most of us have been looking for are features, not visuals. There are some great steps being taken, like the control center and multitasking, but the sense I get looking at the pastel color palette when I look at screencaps is the same I get from looking at my daughter's Easter basket, and I'm not sure how I'll feel about that in the long run.

I've been using iOS 7 Beta for a couple days now. I like the direction they are going with the OS so far, but I would agree that some of the icon visuals can use some work. Not a fan of the color gradient in mail, videos, and music for example. The OS does feel a lot more "fresh" though, compared to iOS 6.

I think they look fantastic, and I like the consistency in look that they achieved across the default icon set. I do agree that the photos icon is not obvious in a vacuum. But it does have a label and once you make the association I think the icon is sensible. As for Game Center, who cares, nobody uses that anyways.

Honestly, I think Apple did this at the wrong time. Change is good, but the timing needs to be correct otherwise they risk alienating their current client base. Now, I'm sure they focus grouped the hell out of this, but Android is becoming a more and more competitive alternative for iOS. At the moment Apple is on very thin ice. Don't get me wrong, I really don't think this will cause a mass exodus, but I do feel like the timing should have been iOS 6ish.

I've been using iOS 7 Beta for a couple days now. I like the direction they are going with the OS so far, but I would agree that some of the icon visuals can use some work. Not a fan of the color gradient in mail, videos, and music for example. The OS does feel a lot more "fresh" though, compared to iOS 6.

I agree - the gradients look 'cheap' ish. 'ish' is the word of the day.

I've been using iOS 7 Beta for a couple days now. I like the direction they are going with the OS so far, but I would agree that some of the icon visuals can use some work. Not a fan of the color gradient in mail, videos, and music for example. The OS does feel a lot more "fresh" though, compared to iOS 6.

I would agree. 7 is not the Second Coming of IOS, but it is headed in the right direction.

UAT is started with Devs, and will add consumers when 7 drops, so I'd guess we'll see subtle to 'dramatic' (for some) tweaks in 7.1-7.5 code trains.

What I find ironic is that in the effort to remove skeumorphism, they *ADDED* one: The camera icon. The old camera icon was a lens - which exists on the iPhone, and in fact looks an awful lot LIKE the icon. The new one is a skeumorphic old-style SLR, which the iPhone most certainly is not.

And, of course, Settings' icon is still skeumorphic, just a different form. I tihnk something similar to the OLD Mac "lightswitch" icon would be good - just make it two of the sliders, one on, one off.

"It’s also clear from what we’ve seen and heard that what we’re seeing of iOS 7 right now is a ‘mid stride’ snapshot. The work on design and development is still going full tilt, and what was presented this week is firmly a ‘work in progress’. We’re told, for instance, that some builds of iOS used onstage at the conference by presenters are already newer than the ones pushed out on Monday." (source)

What I find ironic is that in the effort to remove skeumorphism, they *ADDED* one: The camera icon. The old camera icon was a lens - which exists on the iPhone, and in fact looks an awful lot LIKE the icon. The new one is a skeumorphic old-style SLR, which the iPhone most certainly is not.

And, of course, Settings' icon is still skeumorphic, just a different form. I tihnk something similar to the OLD Mac "lightswitch" icon would be good - just make it two of the sliders, one on, one off.

Skeuomorphism... you use that word but it does not mean what you think it does.

EDIT: typo

EDIT 2: just so it seems less like me just trolling, skeuomorphism is about using real-world imagery or viscerality in an environment that has no need for it. skeuomorphism can be helpful: the camera shutter noise when you take a picture with your smartphone gives everyone a familiar anchor point for understanding the process. on the other hand, skeuomorphism can be detrimental when you confuse/obfuscate your user design/experience: the weird casino green felt of game center with app icons as chips (???) or the textured linen used arbitrarily in iOS 6 to the point where it's meaningless for giving you context.

in other words, mere symbolic or iconic representations of real-world objects (like a stylized drawing of a camera or a gear) is *not* skeuomorphism. it can be a confusing design (the gear does look like a manhole cover), but it's not skeuomorphism.

Place each app icon on a flash card and show them to someone who isn't familiar with ios7 (or ios in general).

They should be able to look at the individual icon and discern what the app does.

I agree with the gist of that, but context is important. To take the extreme case, if you found the flash card in the middle of the Sahara, as opposed to in the Dock, you'd have a much more difficult time narrowing down the range of possibilities.

For myself, icons in general are problematic. I have to make an extra mental step to translate them into the word that stands for what's being referenced.Whereas if it's just text, I immediately get it. So I always choose "Text & Icons" if there is a choice, and just overlook the icons.

As far as iteration I do believe Apple has stated these icons can change before release. I like the direction they are heading in, but really we won't know the final look of the first release of iOS7 till the 5s probably. We can make final judgement then.

"Discarding photorealism and sticking with bold shapes and colors challenges designers to come up with more meaningful symbology and ultimately results in clearer icons."

Clearer icons only to the extent that the symbology is meaningful. For some of these it is, for some it is not. But what really stands out to me here is PASTEL. I'm not really that big a fan of sherbet and bubblegum, you know?

Personally, if I was designing the system I would accept that not everyone's tastes are the same, and provide themes so people could pick the color scheme they like best. Apple's not really into letting people think different, though.

I'd think that they will tweak the icons, and other aspects. After all, they were created in just few months. IIRC it has been only about 8 months since Ive became the head of software-design.

I like the overall design and direction. I think the big hiccup is the icons, and more specifically, the rather bright colors used in them. They could keep the design more or less the same, and tone down the palette a bit, and most of the criticism would go away.

Place each app icon on a flash card and show them to someone who isn't familiar with ios7 (or ios in general).

They should be able to look at the individual icon and discern what the app does.

Do you think they could guess what these icons do?1. Photos2. Game Center3. Safari (it's a compass app, right)4. Newsstand

My guess would be probably no, and therefore these icons are not effective and should be redrawn.

No, that's not the real test. Anyone not familiar with the conventions of tablets, smartpnones, etc were to get one with iOS 7, Android or Windows Phone 8 they would have some learning to do to associate an icon with its app. A better test would be to give those flash cards to a previous iOS owner and see if he/she knows what they are.

She is speaking to the aesthetics of the icons (which, while questionable, is subjective).

No. She's mostly speaking about their functionality. Her quotation of "simple, meaningful symbols that fill a space, such as Music and Weather. It's better—more iconic, less illustrative" is standard usability-speak. Study after study based on large-scale data - not subjectivity - show, over and over again, that icons that are less photorealistic while providing information work better. More detail in an icon that doesn't add any hint to the user of what an icon represents is just visual clutter. There's a lot more to add on these decades of design research, but I'll keep it short.

Obviously, beyond this point, subjective judgments follow in choosing which specific icon to use from a stable of functional ones that don't provide too much clutter.

Place each app icon on a flash card and show them to someone who isn't familiar with ios7 (or ios in general).

They should be able to look at the individual icon and discern what the app does.

Do you think they could guess what these icons do?1. Photos2. Game Center3. Safari (it's a compass app, right)4. Newsstand

My guess would be probably no, and therefore these icons are not effective and should be redrawn.

My guess would be no too. However I looked down at my iPhone running iOS6 and to be honest there's a lot of icons on there that if I didn't know what they were I wouldn't be able to guess very accurately either. Photos? A flower? Game center I would assume is related to games probably but I wouldn't venture a guess to how it's related. Safari? Oh cool I have a built in compass.

I'm sure there would be some sort of learning curve with the new icons (I'm leaving my judgement to whether they're better or not until I actually use iOS7) but I think anyone remotely familiar with iOS will be able to get around nicely.

Place each app icon on a flash card and show them to someone who isn't familiar with ios7 (or ios in general).

They should be able to look at the individual icon and discern what the app does.

Do you think they could guess what these icons do?1. Photos2. Game Center3. Safari (it's a compass app, right)4. Newsstand

My guess would be probably no, and therefore these icons are not effective and should be redrawn.

That type of research doesn't actually work, because you'd be asking users to actively think about what they're trying to do. That's why this method isn't used except by those who haven't done much research in this field.

Users are impulsive. Instead, you'd have to make an interface that actually uses the icons and test users by giving them tasks to complete. If the icons get in their way, then they need to be replaced. Once again, I'll keep it short. A quick, non-scientific look into this is Steve Krug's book Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usabiliy.

Lee Hutchinson / Lee is the Senior Reviews Editor at Ars and is responsible for the product news and reviews section. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX.